Rubio sees no Iran breakthrough as Trump downplays new strikes

• Marco Rubio said there is no breakthrough in talks with Iran. He called Tehran’s demands “outrageous and ridiculous” and said progress is not close.
• Donald Trump said more strikes are “highly unlikely” if Iran signs a “very strong agreement”. CNN reported he still wants a diplomatic end to the war.
• Qatar is still mediating, but Iran says there has been “no activity or movement” from mediators. The war has raised oil prices and hurt Republicans in the midterms.

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down chances of a breakthrough in talks on ending the conflict with Iran, saying Tehran’s demands to date are unacceptable and in some cases “outrageous and ridiculous.”

Rubio’s comments to reporters contrasted with Donald Trump’s tone after CNN cited the US president earlier on Nov 8 as saying it’s “highly unlikely” he’ll order more strikes on Iran if negotiations make substantial progress.

“You have a number of countries that continue to engage them with different ideas, but I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough,” Rubio said in Florida before departing for a trip to meet Group of Seven counterparts in Paris, where the Iran war will be on the agenda.

Iran has previously said the US must end a naval blockade of its ports on the Persian Gulf and lift sanctions as preconditions to peace talks, while Washington is pressing Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to make concessions on its nuclear programme.

While Trump would always prefer a diplomatic solution, “it hasn’t been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable, but in some cases outrageous and ridiculous and really unrealistic,” Rubio said, without specifying which of Iran’s demands he was referring to. 

CNN reported earlier that Trump left the door open to ending the war in comments to the network.

“It depends on whether or not they sign a very strong agreement,” CNN cited Trump as saying in a phone call on on Nov 8. “The answer is: highly unlikely it will be necessary.”

“I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard,” Trump added.  

Trump has acknowledged that his unpopular war, which has driven up oil and petrol prices, played a role in Republicans’ decisive defeat in the Nov 3 midterm elections.

He has defended the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, as necessary to deny Tehran nuclear weapons.

Diplomacy returned into focus last week after the US midterms with Qatar, the chief mediator between the US and Iran, saying that Tehran was studying proposals related to its nuclear activities. 

Trump recently spoke with Qatar’s leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, about efforts to de-escalate tensions, a renewed signal of the president’s desire to end the war.

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Nov 8 “there has been no activity or movement from the mediators” in recent days following the elections in the US.

What “remains to be seen is how long it will take them to come to terms with the result and what direction they will take going forward,” Araghchi told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. BLOOMBERG